The present invention relates generally to the conveyor art, and, more particularly, to a conveyor turning station for turning articles by 180 degrees when they are not in proper position.
In certain types of conveying systems, articles need to be turned 180 degrees, when they are not in correct position, in a very dependable and repeatable way.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,839 discloses apparatus for conveying and turning articles having an obstacle in the conveying path which causes every article to have its position changed by being turned 90 degrees.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,493 relates to element recognition and orientation, and concerns mainly optical sensors without indicating how the orientation is to take place.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,873 discloses apparatus for laterally deflecting articles without rotating them.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,386 discloses a conveyor system diverter turn assembly using a belt drive for diverting articles from one conveyor to another. The articles are moved to a new line, and are not being reoriented on the same line.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,972 discloses a method of controlling sorting systems, and a sorting system so controlled, and not with reorienting articles on a conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,317 discloses apparatus for reorienting articles while the articles are stopped from forward movement, and is a complicated mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,082 discloses an orientation parts feeder which acts upon all parts which enter the system and is not selective as to which articles are oriented.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive device which will turn selected articles without slowing their forward motion.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a device which does this less expensively than prior art devices.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a device with a robust mechanical design and robust control arrangement.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a device which selectively turns only those articles which are not facing a desired direction.
These and other objects are accomplished by rotation of articles, such as tubs or trays on conveyors, to be turned approximately 180 degrees, including sensors that activate a turning mechanism, that interferes with normal tray forward movement to begin to turn the tray or tub, and a second element that will continue to turn the tray approximately 180 degrees from the previous position while remaining traveling in the same direction during the turning process.
The present invention is a novel manner of rotating postal trays/tubs by 180 degrees. When a tray or tub being transported by a conveyor enters the rotator station, a pusher harm pushes the tray/tub against a strategically located stop at the same time rotating it 50-75 degrees. The pusher harm retracts and the tray is transported by driven rollers till it is intercepted by a strategically located bumper which will cause the tray/tub to rotate 105-130 degrees thus completing the 180 degree rotation.
The present invention selectively rotates mail trays (letter or flat mail) 180 degrees as required to insure label forward orientation. It utilizes data provided by a bar code reader array located upstream.